Tanker drivers to strike over pay

Unions
are demanding an 8 per cent pay increase for the more than 300 P&O Trans
European drivers – who deliver fuel for Shell. P&0 is offering staff a 4.5
per cent pay rise.

Ron
Webb, national secretary for transport at the Transport and General Workers’
Union, said: "We have been involved in lengthy negotiations to get a deal.
What is very clear from this vote, however, is that drivers are saying to the
company ‘we have been undervalued for the dangerous and essential work we do for
too long’.

"Unless
there is a 59th minute of the 11th hour offer, our members will be out on
strike from the first shifts on Friday morning."

Negotiations
between P&O Trans European and the T&G have been taking place since
January this year to find a settlement. The revised offer from P&O of 4.5
per cent was rejected by 60 per cent of union members in a ballot returned this
week.